Some women among Southwest's 34,000 employees are grumbling, he said, but many applaud the company for its innovation.

Laurel Davis-Delano, a sociology professor at Springfield College in Massachusetts, isn't surprised that some are offended.

Author of a book called “Swimsuit Issue and Sport: Hegemonic Masculinity and Sports Illustrated,” Davis-Delano thinks the plane “is linked to a troubling societal trend.”

That would be the increasing sexualization of women in popular culture. Magazines (even ones targeted to women), TV shows and movies all do it. Women are portrayed primarily as sex objects, and The Babe Plane merely fits that pattern.

If Southwest featured a female soccer player kicking a ball, Davis-Delano said, that would have broken the mold.

Instead, it's same old, same old.

Sports Illustrated said the use of a Southwest plane was part of “multi-platform” launch of the swimsuit issue. Models and invited guests flew from New York to Las Vegas. The models did not wear bikinis, an SI spokesman noted, so I guess they didn't have to cover up with blankets.

As many as 24 million women read the swimsuit issue, either in print or digitally, SI reports. About 42 million men check it out.